On pleasant afternoons when I get home from work I like to sit out on the patio and enjoy the weather. It doesn’t have to be warm out but sunny is a must. Sunshine is a wonderful vitamin and I try to get all I can. There is almost always a breeze blowing gently if not more so and it serves to bring the plants to life. The ornamental grass “plumage” sways and ripples as the wind tosses it about. The wind is not unlike white noise and makes me drowsy after only a few minutes. Eventually I sit lower in my chair until I’m at a respectable slouch. My head looks upward then my mind wanders thru random thoughts of time and space. After I’ve solved all of the current problems in the world, excluding cancer and Democrats, I like to study the clouds. The big, white, puffy ones always resemble one type of animal or another. Their wispy curling and march across the sky remind me that the world is in constant motion. The colors are vibrant and I can see multiple shades of gold, green, and blue. Everything that has ever lived has seen the same sky but in another point of time. I wonder what they have thought as they looked upwards. It’s required and equally understood that I have to have a pot of green tea nearby. The very simplest of drinks, it is merely dried tea leaves steeped in water in which the perfect cup is difficult to achieve. Tea can only be enjoyed when there are no distractions. No books, magazines, television, or bikinis. I violate this mandate occasionally but I really prefer to be alone with only my thoughts and usually, Kathy’s dog Scooter.
Dog’s are master’s of leisure. They quietly sleep up to 18 hours a day including random naps. They are a study in relaxation. I sit and watch Scooter lying on the patio, his fur shimmering in the breeze and I know that he is thinking the same thing as I am, only on a slightly different plane. I can see it in his face, eyes half closed, nose pointed upward slightly to better catch the smells available for scrutiny, seemingly smiling at the sheer enjoyment of being outside with a full belly and no fence to contain him. After a fashion he rolls over on his back, paws flopped towards the sky, and scratches himself by slowly twisting his body a few times. Then it’s off to another spot a few feet away to take in more of the beauty we know as Earth.
The external and internal distractions are calling me away. I don’t want to get up but the chair and the responsibility we call life have other plans. I call to Scooter to come along and at first he is unresponsive. A second call and he obediently trots in the house, happy to be on another patrol through the kitchen to find a treasure that dropped off someone’s last meal.
He has a zenlike state of mind that I can only hope to reach.
Contentment
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